Red Adair Biography

Firefighter (1915–2004)

Red Adair was an American oil well firefighter best known for completing over 1,000 jobs internationally.

Synopsis

Red Adair was an American oil well firefighter born on June 18, 1915, in Houston, Texas. In 1938, he worked his first oil-related job with the Otis Pressure Control Company, and during World War II he served in the 139th Bomb Disposal Squadron. In 1959, he formed Red Adair Company, Inc. which provided services to control oil well fires and blowouts. His company established modern-day effective Wild Well Control techniques. Adair’s accomplishment gained notice, and in 1968 he became the Technical Advisor on the film Hellfighters starring John Wayne. During his career, he and his company completed over 1,000 jobs internationally including in 1991's Operation Desert Storm. Adair died on August 7, 2004, in Houston, Texas.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

Firefighting Legacy

Fire-fighting specialist Red Adair was born in on June 18, 1915 in Houston, Texas. He was regularly called in as a troubleshooter to deal with major oil fires. In 1984, he and his team put out a major fire on an offshore rig near Rio de Janeiro, and in 1988 they were the first men to board the Piper Alpha oil rig in the North Sea after it was destroyed by an explosion. He was also one of the first called to extinguish the oil fires started in Kuwait by Saddam Hussein at the end of the Gulf conflict (Operation Desert Storm, 1991). He is the subject of a film, Hellfighters (1968), starring John Wayne.

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

ADVERTISEMENT

Thanks for watching!

Fact Check

We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!

Biography Newsletter

MORE STORIES FROM BIOGRAPHY

On Sunday, FX premiered its show ‘Trust,’ about the life of American businessman J. Paul Getty, who built his family’s fortune in oil. Dubbed at one point the richest man in the world, he’s known for his artistic endeavors, miserliness and the kidnapping of his grandson.

Physicist and mathematician P.A.M Dirac, who helped found quantum electrodynamics, is known for the Dirac equation and his prediction of antiparticles. He won the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics with Erwin Schrödinger.